Cabin July 2023 - S&C Gerber Family!

Well we did it! We are home from our week-long trip to the cabin! Last year, if you recall, was a bit hairy with all the kids getting Hand Food Mouth. This year only two kids got sick haha. Two of mine. D'oh!! 

The morning we were packing up, Kirstin and Wren invited Eva over for a playdate. Life saver. Eva's been a challenge lately so it was the only way I got anything done! We decided to break up our drive by staying overnight in Agassiz the night before. Greatest decision ever! Our drive from there was mapped at 3.5 hours. I think it took us around 4.5, with one long stop in Princeton with Scott, Ash & Pheebs. In Princeton a man decided we needed his stinky, cigarette burned sleeping bags from his shopping cart and kept bringing them over to our picnic blanket. Thanks, but no thanks sir!

The cabin itself was magical. Lots of pickleball, fris-beer, swimming, floating, kids activities, feeding the turtles, playing with cousins, riding the tractor, playing Super Tock marbles, throwing the ball for Sherlock, delicious food, delicious drinks, sunscreen application, a day of wine tasting for the ladies, a "drink" tasting with Emilia, a day of golf for the dads, kodak moments, and just a couple days of sickness for Dom & Eva. 

I didn't take notes throughout the week, so I can't recall all the details I wish I could, but I'll do a photo dump of all the photos I have from myself and others and see what happens!

Another win in the mini-van book! So much space

Now those are some happy faces! haha

Since Eva is such a terrible traveler if the trip is over 1 hour, we tried turning her seat around hoping that would help. She felt like such a big girl and was so excited. Spoiler alert though... in the grand scheme of things it did absolutely nothing to help.

Christmas in July from Wren! They each got a little electronic drawing pad thing. 

We had such a nice visit with Gramma and Grandpa in Agassiz. This is the view from the back deck of Mt. Cheam. Beautiful!

Hard to see, but I caught a bee trying desperately to pollenate these plastic flowers haha 

Dom reading Green Eggs & Ham for the first time

Next day we were out the door just after 7 am! Had to break out the emergency stickers and snacks within 10 minutes. Here we go! Thanks for the Clonazepam, Ma!

I made the kids clipboards with road trip bingo, a map of our trip with landmarks/highlights/stops marked down, and some other road trip games with blank paper.

Snack/lunch break in Princeton

Immediately upon arrival to the cabin it was time for Eva's nap. Emilia straight away got her swim suit on and asked me to fetch some clay for her to play mud kitchen. These mud kitchen toys I brought were a hit all week! 

We had one or two sort of cloudy and cool days which was actually very welcome

A walk/ride down to the turtle pond

Sherlock assuming his position for the rest of the week.

Considering we had 4 two-year-olds, it was relatively unstressful with the water thankfully!

Dom has totally entered the next stage of childhood. He no longer gravitates towards playing with toys, or pretend play. He wants to be involved in the sports and games that are happening much more.

For Emilia's birthday we got her a kid's camera. We bought a second one to gift to Dom for the cabin. I can't wait to go through their pictures.

The kayak lived in the lawn most of the week.

O and E giggling up a storm

Dave and I slept in the motorhome so our 3 kids could sleep in a room together. It was nice to have a bit of a separate space, and it was a good spot for the kids to escape to for some quiet time too. Though it wasn't utilized as much for that as I had thought/hoped!

Uncle Adam wore his watch on his sail and was showing Dom everything it tracked.

Mom & Dad went out for a sail before the wind picked up haha. It ended up being a short sail with them flying in towards shore.

This was our first time seeing Mr. Myles in over 6 months since they moved to Toronto! He's a hilarious and busy little guy.

Owen's little belly in his Buzz Lightyear jammies is what made this pic make the blog haha

Lights on the pickleball court!

Tried to get a quiet time movie going on the projector (the colours weren't mess up in real life), but the kids decided they'd rather continue following the adults around haha.

Many, many tractor rides. Owen was pretty much obsessed with the tractor. He'd just up and take off towards the back of the property where it was kept, so we finally just parked it on the front lawn most days

These kids are all so darn cute together

Tessa came from next door to join us for ice cream one day too!

Kids were getting hot and restless, so we set up a water table with pom poms and kitchen tools for them. This set up went on almost every day from that point on.

Mom, Aly, Ashleigh and I went wine tasting, picked up Marta from the Penticton airport and then hit one more winery on the way back. We went to Poplar Grove first, where we got to taste in the Legacy room since Adam and Aly are members there. We were treated to a lunch on their patio after which was sooo delicious and had the most beautiful view. 

From there, we drove to La Frenz and did a tasting followed by a decent size purchase of their viognier (so good). 

After picking up Marta, we hit up Kismet on the way back. Second time I've been there, and it is so excellent! I highly recommend. Great wines, decent price point, and they also have an amazing Indian restaurant we went to last year. Great day!

While we were out, I kept getting texts from Dave about how hot and miserable the kids were. Upon arriving back, we realized Dom and Eva both had fevers. After last year's sick-kid trauma, I was feeling super guilty and awful thinking about anyone else getting sick. Some how (so far) no one else has gotten anything that I am aware of, and D&E were only out for a day and a half or so. 

I'm not sure I get this haha...

Oh hey! We joined together to join the Kismet wine club!

Emilia was really hoping to be able to come wine tasting with us, but there wasn't space in the car and it would have been a very long day for her. I promised her that when we got home that afternoon, we would do a special drink tasting with her with all the ladies and she could pick whatever she wanted us all to taste and do the pours and we'd all discuss it and hang out and have some girl time. 
My word. This girl was in HEAVEN! I was tearing up because she was so stinking happy. Melt my freaking heart. 

We tasted Lime Bubly, Coca-Cola, Orange Juice, and Pink Lemonade.

Look at her face! <3 <3 <3

Also her pours were remarkably even and perfectly sized.

This poor middle child is her best happiest self when her siblings are sick. They rest, and she gets the run of the place and her Mommy haha. This afternoon completely filled her bucket. One plus side of Dom & Emilia being sick with fevers.

A windstorm kicked up that afternoon as well and we brought out a kite. That's what's happening here haha. The kite is getting away and Ash is trying to rescue it.

Dave was trying to get a cool shot of the sunset when a family of ducks swam right through his shot.

The next day the guys all went golfing in the morning. Aunty Ashleigh & Aunty Aly took Dom, Emilia, Myles and Phoebe all to the grocery store, leaving just Mom, Marta, Owen, Eva and myself at the cabin. That was the most relaxing hour and a half of the whole trip; no question.

We had morning margaritas and had some of the 7-layer dip I made. Owen enjoyed it by the spoonful haha.

Pulled pork nachos for lunch!

We kept the big kids up a little one evening because it was calm enough for a fire. Way too hot, but calm enough. Dom was still getting over his bug, so we didn't stay up late, but at least they got to roast some marshmallows and have s'mores! I do wish we'd been able to do a late night with them one night. There's always next year I suppose!

Having all these Uncles and Aunties and cousins and grandparents around is such a blessing for the kids and for us as parents!

Daddy Daycare

Uncle Rich was next door with his big rig, and some of the kids got to go check it out. It was all fine and dandy until he honked the big horn haha!

By the end of the week Dom and Emilia were swimming all around in their lifejackets. Phoebe too! She was a confident little water maniac! Eva and Myles more tolerated the water. I think Eva would have been happier without a lifejacket, but with that many kids to monitor that was definitely not an option.

Dom was playing int he water and announces, "I caught a fish!" We all thought he was carrying a leaf until we realized he really did catch a tiny dead fish haha. Aunty Ashleigh asked for some tools and did a nature dissection with the kids. She's much cooler than me haha.

Since Emilia got to do her drink tasting and Dom wasn't able to go golfing with the guys, we went next door to use Uncle Rich's tee box and Dom got to hit some balls into the water. He's got a ways to go, but he also smoked quite a few impressively!

Came across some more photos so here's some out of order ones!

Aunty Ashleigh's bedtime storytime

RIP Party Island. You had a good run!

Dr. Phoebe with patient Dominic

JARS

Owen and his motorized vehicles haha. Very serious about driving the motorhome. 

The drive home was one I'd like to forget. Eva screamed probably 40% of the way. And when I say screamed I don't mean cried. I mean SCREAMED. At the top of her lungs. It was so loud all of us ended up crying (except maybe Dave. I wasn't in a right enough mind to check on him). Emilia was yelling loudly because her brain just couldn't handle the noise anymore by the time we got to Abbotsford. From roughly Sumas to home the entire car was just chaos. We (foolishly) decided to drive knowing we'd be going over nap time and knowing she wouldn't sleep in the car. About an hour into her regular nap time is when the wheels REALLY came off. I was full on panic attack not being able to breathe, but we were in the freeway traffic with nowhere to pull off. It was not fun. At all. Finally everyone quieted down when we got off the freeway at 176, 5 minutes from home. Then... I kid you not... at the Honeybee Centre at 176 and Fraser Highway Eva finally falls to sleep. Hours and hours of screaming and falls asleep approximately 90 seconds from our house. You have gottttt to be kidding me. She stayed passed out in her seat for most of the un-packing and then woke up as cranky as she was when she fell asleep. 

We had all sorts of DVD movies, shows, snacks, games, toys, songs, etc. etc. Nothing was going to work. Bluey and Frozen helped intermittently for the first two hours, but I genuinely found myself deciding to never go on a road trip again, questioning whether it was all worth it. Of course it is, but it was that bad. We stopped for lunch in Princeton as a planned stop and we were very ready for that because Eva had already been screaming for half an hour at that point. She continued to cry the whole stop and refused to eat anything. Greaaaat! 

Anyway... This is more a therapy session for me to process all of that than anything, but yikes. 

In the end, would I do it again? Yes. Would I drug her with gravol? Also yes haha. Maybe next year will be better... And next year we won't try driving over nap time... 

I secretly want to try to squeeze another cabin trip in this year sometime because I just love it there so much. I have SO many memories growing up, and I absolutely love watching the kids make memories too! We'll see what we can swing, but I am so grateful to Opa & Oma for buying this property 32 years ago, and to all those who helped plan, build and care for the cabin since then. It's such a blessing to so many families and generations.